During maintenance of a pool, particularly in a ground home pool, it is often necessary to scrape the side walls and bottom of the pool with a brush to remove dirt or algae. The typical brush used for this procedure includes a long, manually extendable handle made of aluminum pipe and a detachable brush head which is attached at one end of the handle by a nylon fastener. Use of the brush is tedious because it requires the user to move the brush up and down along the vertical surface of the pool wall, while simultaneously urging the bristles of the brush against the wall with sufficient force to provide effective cleaning action. This is an awkward movement and leads to early fatigue.
Several attempts have been made in the prior art to redesign the pool brush to provide for reduced brushing effort. Examples are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,742,592, 3,003,168, and 2,243,576. Each of these patents discloses the use of an attachment to a pool brush which assists in urging the bristles of the brush against the side wall while the brush is moved in an up and down motion. A portion of the energy exerted in this up and down motion is converted by this attachment to a force urging the bristles of the brush against the side wall, thereby reducing the effort necessary for cleaning.
These patents disclose devices which are too complicated and expensive for practical application in the pool industry. Therefore, a need exists for a better design which will clean the side walls and bottom of the pool with less effort and yet be inexpensive to manufacture and purchase and easy to install without tools and easy to use.